Wtf?

[evilhippo]

I just found out that Giles (you know, from Buffy) was the evil principal in School Reunion. How is that even possible?! Never in a million years would I have drawn that connection. (Apparently he's also the voice of Baltazar in Infinite Quest, but I think I might've known/recognized that.) Trying to make this make sense is hurting my brain. Also, I'm bored out of my mind, and can't make myself go back to reading things because the book I'm working through right now is actually making me feel like a decent writer. Appositions, people... Use Them Wisely.

I mean, especially in this book... which actually brings me to one of my theories/rants about fanfic... which is that you have to know your audience. Most people who aren't familiar with a series aren't going to pick up a novel based on it unless it's one of those novels that's basically a retelling... in which case, yeah, it is up to you to do all the characterization and exposition properly. However, an entire chapter in a book that kind of boils down to fan-oriented (fan)fiction that's full of something like...

"Kara Thrace, who's pretty much never called Kara Thrace because she's a Viper pilot and people call the pilots by their call signs, which are nicknames for pilots, so she's called Starbuck, unless Lee, who is really Lee Adama AKA Apollo, not to be confused with the Arrow of Apollo, which is a mythical item that Starbuck (Kara Thrace) had to bring back to the Galactica, which is a giant ship in space under the command of Bill Adama, Apollo (Lee)'s father, is talking to her, which is what's happening now. "Hi Kara," Lee the Viper pilot says. "Hi Lee," Kara says disdainfully because Kara and Lee have a complicated relationship because..." etc. (Okay, it's not nearly that bad, but that was fun to write.)

I'm pretty sure I completely forgot where I was going with this... Moral of the story is to trust your audience to know/figure things out, and that sloppy bad exposition is bad. Yeah.

Comments

[look-alive.livejournal.com]

Dude! You didn't know Anthony Head was the evil principle dude? Yeah, I saw that and nearly turned inside out laughing so hard. HE'S SO SKETCHY! Even as Giles, when he's mad, I worry.

Also, speaking of turning inside out from laughter... Yeah, wow. Um... This is an actual published work? I kind of want to read it now. The same way I want to read the Snakes on a Plane novelization. I think we should buy that and sit around and read it to each other when we move in. You know, somewhere between making Meatropolis and potato Jesus, and when Lisa isn't occupied with her raptors. Annnnnd why is Firefox spell-check highlighting "raptor"?

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

Oh, he is sketchy. But I still never would've connected the two. Someone probably told me when School Reunion first aired, but I hadn't really seen Buffy at the time, so it never occurred to me just how very strange it was.

Well, it's not quite as bad as what I wrote there, but the random attempts at characterization-through-information does get rather overwhelming at times. It's nowhere near as bad as the Snakes on a Plane novel, though. Which is a shame.

Raptor? Huh. That's very weird. I think I'll make Firefox learn it now.